


A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Series: pigs in space [1]
Category: Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, M/M, Pigs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-16 02:19:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13626495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: When an X-wing crash lands at the edge of Haknyeon's farm he doesn't expect to want to hold onto the pilot inside





	A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

**Author's Note:**

> the third of this week's fics inspired by a conversation with [rebekah](http://archiveofourown.org/users/fir8008/pseuds/fir8008)
> 
> it's a star wars au which really has nothing to do with star wars at all but it is the piggy boys in a different setting to usual (as in it's not this little piggy). it is also the first posting of the 'week' which sees me break that 3k rule that i set myself but that doesn't matter much anyway.

Haknyeon had left the crashed ship for a few hours to see whether it would blow up. He locked the pigs inside their pigsties (because his mum wouldn't have been happy at all to find her livestock not very live at all when she returned from the conference) and set about loading one of the tractors with tools and made himself lunch. After lunch, Haknyeon decided to take a drive to the outskirts of the farm where the feeble plume of steel rose from the base of the mountain.

Technically Haknyeon had other things to be getting on with like checking the wellbeing of the pigs and organising their evening feed but the farm hands knew how to take care of things on their own. For now Haknyeon was going to see what upgrades he could make to the farm's tractors.

The drive out was long and bumpy but Haknyeon occupied himself by humming snatches of songs he had heard on his last journey into the nearby town. Haknyeon quite liked going into the town. His younger sister had a better brain for maths and was apparently quite fine on her own as she went to take the pigs to be slaughtered and then to market to sell the meat once it was ready. She got to go far more often than Haknyeon did but he supposed it was because when he did go into town he was easily distracted by the people who perused their stall before bragging about being rebel pilots as though they cared nothing for the flurried stormtrooper presence in the town. One or two even suggested Haknyeon fight for the cause, help to bring down the empire ruled by the veils of the sith.

“An X-wing isn't too different to a tractor, you know,” They'd say. It would be up to Haknyeon's younger sister to tug his arm. “Stop listening to those drunkards. They say things like that to me every week. Do you even know anything about the policies of the empire or the rebels?”

That usually settled things because, no, Haknyeon didn't know a thing about the politics on either side of the conflict and it would be quite inconvenient to die for something he wasn't even sure about. Even though Haknyeon was easily swayed away from fancies about flying around the galaxy and blowing things up (and getting home in time for tea to regale his mum with his exciting stories. He'd go to bed and wake her early to prepare livestock for the abattoir and wait for the other kids to wake up and come out to play their star battles on the field near the farm. He supposed his idea of things was very firmly that of the routine he had as a child.) he was sure the pilots hadn't lied to him. Not about joining their ranks, rather the notion that tractors weren't too different to X-wings. Haknyeon was sure he could impress his mum and sisters with all sorts of upgrades he could make to their machinery with parts from an actual spaceship! It was just that he hadn't really thought through the logistics of tearing apart a crashed ship.

Haknyeon wrapped a long neckerchief around his lower face to protect what the goggles over his eyes couldn’t before securing ear defenders over his head to muffle the screeches of tearing metal and circuitry. He was probably far away enough from the farm that the pigs wouldn’t be to disturbed by the racket he was about to make. After looking over the wreckage he hefted his tools from his tractor to make an attempt at impressing his family.

He ignored the whistling and beeping that penetrated the dull serenity of his ear defenders because it was probably an onboard computer signalling urgent repairs that would need to be made to the starfighter. Not that there was any point in repairing something which was smoking and sparking pathetically from the concertina crush of its nose.

After unbolting and cutting away sheets of casing and thrusters and some protrusions he wasn't entirely certain of, Haknyeon had gone for the interior to tear out some of enclosed electrics and found a pilot. Of course there was a pilot, how else would the ship have got here? Until he found the pilot he hadn’t even spared a thought for the existence of one.

Haknyeon was stuck staring through the reinforced glass screen at the person inside the starfighter. The person had been inside for hours already while Haknyeon had done nothing to help them. The X-wing shrieked and Haknyeon finally spurred himself into action using every tool he had to cut through the seal that kept him outside the vacuum of the cockpit.

His ears rang with the squeal of metal being breached and Haknyeon wasn’t sure whether he was imagining the persistent robotic shrieks and clicks from the ship as he destroyed it. He struggled through the smog of dust and sparks spraying at his face with each press of his rotating saw against the ship but the heat on his face, embers and fumes permeating the weave of the neckerchief over his mouth, was nothing compared to the pilot unconsciously suffering and left alone for hours.   

 

*

 

Haknyeon was woken up by something ramming into his shin repeatedly. He sat up, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and saw that the pilot was as still as he had ever been on the bed. Haknyeon’s chair beside the bed rattled as the squealing astromech reversed from between Haknyeon’s legs on its wheels once more before accelerating and bashing into him. Haknyeon kicked out but the stupid droid weaved out of his way and clicked at him indignantly as though it hadn’t been the one to incite violence.

“Good morning, Hyunmin,” Haknyeon said. The pilot didn’t respond just as he hadn’t for the past week. Each day Haknyeon had prodded and pleaded with the astromech until it spat out the juddering blue hologram sheet of information. It seemed to exist in case of emergency but Haknyeon had found Hyunmin after an emergency and nothing in the code indicated what Haknyeon should do to help him. Day after day nothing about the data changed and it remained as useless as ever to Haknyeon.

There were medical centres in the town but Haknyeon was wary of taking someone whose every belonging was emblazoned with rebel alliance regalia into the town which imperial units use as a base.

The extent of Haknyeon's medical knowledge was being able to patch up scrapes and apply ointment before panicking and calling the vet if one of the pigs was afflicted with something he had no way of treating. Hyunmin the pilot hadn't appeared to get worse and his breathing and pulse remained steady each day and his complexion hadn't greyed out in the days since Haknyeon had dragged him from his wrecked ship and cautiously fed him sips of water several times a day. Haknyeon was hoping the astromech would be well attuned to alerting him to any worsening or improving conditions in the pilot but as of yet he still detested the thing. Haknyeon didn't know much about droids like this but he had heard some of them grow very attached to their companions. It was a shame that this droid was too stupid to see that Haknyeon was trying to help and instead had attempted to break Haknyeon's shins for three mornings in a row.

“You're so ungrateful,” Haknyeon grumbled as he got up from the chair to start his routine of ensuring the pilot was still alive. “You know I haven't been able to sleep in my bed for _days_ because your friend is in it. I took you both in out of the kindness of my heart and all you do to repay me is give me horrible bruises! What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Sorry.”

“That's the least you could say…” Haknyeon's hands stilled as he fetched fresh cloths from the chest of drawers. Astromechs were sophisticated but that didn't mean they had any methods of communication besides the clicks and whirs of binary beeping. They certainly weren't capable of human speech. “You can't talk.”

Haknyeon was certain he was the only one who could talk. He turned slowly, mostly because he was afraid of what was waiting for him in the vast unknown of his bedroom - bandits, intruders, droids capable of human speech, someone inviting him to explore the omniscient powers of the force - and was very cross to see nothing too far out of the ordinary. Nothing aside from the pilot he had been fretting over while toiling away on the farm with his aching muscles which could have been remedied by a good night's sleep.

“What are you doing?”

The pilot fidgeted sheepishly where he sat up on the bed. “Sorry.”

“I thought you were _dying!_ ” Haknyeon said. “I was preparing myself for a lifetime of palliative nursing! Is this real? Are you actually fine?”

The pilot glanced down at the bedsheets, his fingers curling with reluctance.

“Hyunmin!”

The pilot flinched and blinked up at Haknyeon with bright eyes. “I really am sorry. I got scared because you're really handsome but I didn't know whether you were going to dob me in to the imperial soldiers.”

Haknyeon's annoyance hadn't abated, only strengthened with his confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well you have a really nice face and I had to build up the courage to try to talk to you even though you talk to me every day. There's something a bit intimidating about very good looking-”

“I don't want to hear about that!” Truthfully Haknyeon was very pleased to hear that he was good looking but it was an insignificant detail alongside the possibility that the pilot had been awake for some time. He cleared his throat and hoped the comment about being intimidating was still valid as he asked, “Should I dob you in? It won't be a long ride into town to turn you over to them. I am sure they will be very interested to hear all the things you could tell them about being part of the rebellion.”

The pilot's eyes widened and he scrambled out of Haknyeon's bed. “Please, don't do it! I'm a nobody really. I just do what I am told so I don't know anything useful.” He took a trembling step towards Haknyeon and Haknyeon was at least pleased that this man clearly hadn't deceived him by venturing out and investigating the farm if his legs were so unsteady. He was less pleased with how brazen this man was after stealing Haknyeon's bed for a week, reaching out to close his hands around Haknyeon's and ask for more of him. “You got KT-GZ to show you information about me, right? That's how you know I'm Hyunmin? KT trusts you so that means you're a good person. What's your name?”

There was something about people who flew around in space. It must have been the constant existence in a vacuum with recycled oxygen and only an astromech to communicate with that made them so strange. That was the only explanation for why Hyunmin could stand so close and hold onto Haknyeon's hands so tightly as though this was something other than him begging for safety.

“I'm Ju Haknyeon.” He winced at the rasp of his own voice and felt a prickle at the back of his neck as Hyunmin repeated his name and smiled. Haknyeon couldn't return the warmth of the smile. “So what now? If I don't contact the imperial forces what are you going to do? It has been long enough that I am sure they've already noticed the presence of a twelve metre vessel on the edge of my property.”

Haknyeon didn't think it was worth mentioning the fact that he didn't have a plan in place if the farm was raided before Hyunmin woke up. He had been hoping all along that he could play the part of a naive man who knew nothing aside from how to raise litters of piglets. Now that Hyunmin, a starfighter pilot who undoubtedly lied and deceived on his galactic adventures, was here he should be able to cover himself well.

“I don't know,” Hyunmin said. “Maybe I could stay here with you for awhile until I work something out.”

“My mum and my sister will return from their conference soon. And what will the employees here think when you appear?”

Hyunmin frowned. “What did you tell them about my X-wing?”

“I told them the pilot was dead and I had to dispose of the body so it didn't attract vermin when it decomposed.”

“That could work as a story,” Hyunmin said. “Please, will you let me stay?”

“I don't have anywhere spare for you to sleep,” Haknyeon said. He knew what Hyunmin’s argument would be so he said, “That's my bed and I would quite like it back.”

Hyunmin’s grip loosened on Haknyeon's hands as he turned to look behind him at the bed. “It's big enough for two people though.”

“No it isn't!” Haknyeon said crossly. “I will fetch you some fresh clothes and then you can wash up before we head out to work.”

Haknyeon was some way out of his bedroom when he heard Hyunmin call out dumbly, “So I can stay?”

 

***

 

It had been a while since Haknyeon had driven out to the edge of the farm on the tractor, a little over a week but just enough for Haknyeon’s guilt to have doubled and tripled every hour that Hyunmin was awake. His knuckles were white as he gripped onto the steering wheel and Hyunmin practically interrogated him from the seat beside him.

“So these animals, these pigs, what do you do with them? Do you really eat them?”

“Of course we eat them.”

KT-GZ said something in a series of ascending beeps from where it was strapped inelegantly to the back of the tractor.

“I agree. They look funny. Don’t their feet freak you out?” Hyunmin asked. It was a strange thing to say. Surely Hyunmin had seen plenty of species, both civilised and domesticated, on his travels. There must have been creatures more baffling to witness than pigs. As far as Haknyeon knew they were cultivated on many planets on the outer territories with hundreds of species of pig existing on different countries on all the different planets that they were raised. Haknyeon’s family farmed a standard breed of pig which was only traded locally because they were as abundant as nerfs.

Regardless of what Hyunmin had seen he had taken to inspecting the pigs very closely whenever he was allowed and was squeezing the delicate little trotter that Sowmi had offered to him as she curled in his lap.

“How do you even walk on this, you cute little dummy?” Hyunmin cooed over the trundling of the tractor engine.

“She’s not a dummy. Pigs are actually more intelligent creatures than small children.”

“And you eat them?” Hyunmin asked. Haknyeon shrugged and ignored the garbled whirring coming from KT-GZ. He was trying to focus on driving and he didn’t need to be reminded that they were accompanied by a little machine which had continued to indirectly attempt to attack him for several days.

“I just don’t want you getting her confused over what she is called when she already knows her name is Sowmi.”

Sowmi bleated happily in Hyunmin’s lap and Haknyeon glanced away from the dirt track to smile at her. He took the chance to glare at KT-GZ while he could before returning his attention to driving.

“Are you really smarter than a person, Sowmi?” Hyunmin asked. “Can you tell me something really smart?”

Sowmi squealed and oinked and Hyunmin dropped a kiss to her nose. “That’s the very smartest thing I have ever heard in my life and your father and I love you very much.”

“What are you saying to her?” Haknyeon asked. Hyunmin was saying ridiculous things and KT-GZ sounded as though it was equally curious. He was already feeling nervous about showing Hyunmin his ship so he didn’t really want distractions like Hyunmin falling in love with one of the pigs and then deciding to abandon her because Haknyeon ruined his life.

“What sort of things do you want me to say to make sure she grows up into a fantastic young lady?” Hyunmin asked. KT-GZ squealed and Hyunmin frowned. “I can’t say that to her.”

“Just don’t say anything strange,” Haknyeon said. He needed to concentrate on driving.

“Did you hear that, Sowmi, our precious little baby? Your dad isn’t strict at all. I could say anything as long as it isn’t strange. But what is strange? He’s going to eat you anyway.”

“I will not eat her!” Haknyeon protested. KT-GZ bleeped sarcastically.

“But somebody will,” Hyunmin pointed out.

“Don’t tell her that,” Haknyeon pouted. “She probably understands and you’ll make her upset.”

“Do you understand me, Sowmi? You’re such a cute little baby even if your species is strange to look at. I love you, okay?”

Haknyeon decided to stop listening to Hyunmin’s gushing over the piglet. He needed to steel himself for whatever would follow this ridiculous display when Hyunmin got to see what remained of his starfighter.

When they got there Haknyeon realised he should have fortified himself more strongly when he saw Hyunmin slip out of the tractor while clutching Sowmi to his chest. He visually inspected the ship from a distance, sprinting from one end to the other and making disgruntled noises before eventually he rushed back to the tractor. He didn’t spare a look for Haknyeon and glared at KT-GZ.

“You didn’t tell me it was like this!”

KT-GZ beeped and clicked at Hyunmin but he interrupted, “You said that some damage was done to rescue me but- Will you shut up, I’m talking to you! I know what I said but I meant temporarily, not forever!”

KT-GZ replied and even Sowmi looked concerned. Haknyeon climbed out of the tractor and carefully approached Hyunmin’s conference with a pig and a robot.

“Hyunmin?”

Hyunmin stiffened and slowly shuffled around to face Haknyeon. A shine of red had already glossed over his eyes and he stared down at the top of Sowmi’s head instead of looking at Haknyeon. It was understandable.

“I’m so sorry, Hyunmin. I wasn’t really thinking about you at all,” Haknyeon said. “We can probably fix it though. I will do whatever I can to help.”

Hyunmin sniffed. “I’m stuck here forever, Haknyeon. I can’t get home.”

“I’m sorry, Hyunmin. Maybe we can…”

Hyunmin shrugged and wandered away a few metres and sat on the ground, stroking Sowmi absently.

Haknyeon could hardly say that he didn't intend to wreck the X-wing further than the damage it had sustained in the crash - he had been very deliberate about dismantling it and KT-GZ could easily relay that information if Haknyeon dared to hide it - and if the tables were turned he would hate to receive such a thoughtless apology. He simply hated seeing Hyunmin look so heartbroken. He was trapped on another planet and all he had was Haknyeon and a robot who couldn't even really talk to him.

When Haknyeon approached the X-wing, Hyunmin called out to him.

“Get away from it. Don't do anything else.”

“But, Hyunmin, I have to try to make this better,” Haknyeon said. “I've heard a lot of people tell me how similar the mechanics of starfighters are to machinery I see every day. It might take a while but I am sure-”

“Let's just go home, Haknyeon,” Hyunmin said quietly.

Haknyeon tried pointing out parts of the wreckage which were easily repairable but Hyunmin was already pulling himself up to the front seat of the tractor, careful not to dislodge Sowmi from the cradle of his arms. It was likely that prolonging this would only hurt Hyunmin more so Haknyeon got into the tractor and drove them back to the homestead with only the grumbling of the engine as accompaniment.

 

***

 

“So, Haknyeon,” Hyunmin said as he pretended to sort through a box of thermometer attachments for the pigs’ ears. Haknyeon sighed and turned the piglet in his lap away from witnessing such poor work ethics.

“Those are the used thermometer attachments. I hope you're wearing gloves,” Haknyeon said. Hyunmin cringed away from the box and kicked it idly before he drifted over to the pen of dozing piglets inside the barn.

Haknyeon liked to keep Hyunmin away from the rest of the farm employees to prevent him from rousing suspicion of his origin. Since seeing his wrecked X-wing Hyunmin had been more willing to help out on the farm and around the house but Haknyeon still wanted to avoid awkward questions about this man who had suddenly appeared. In order to ignore the speculative gossip about the new lodger, Haknyeon had to volunteer them both for awkward tasks which required the precision of multiple people whereby Haknyeon discovered Hyunmin was entirely useless. He sighed. He doubted he would find anything Hyunmin was good for before they fixed his vessel and he was jetting back off into the sky and travelling hundreds of parsecs away from the farm.

“Haknyeon,” Hyunmin tried again without any consideration for the napping piglets. “Have you always been a farmer?”

Haknyeon hugged Piggly to his chest to calm him down before the pending discomfort. He tried to keep his voice level and low as he replied. “I have already told you this is my family's farm. I have lived here my whole life.”

Hyunmin nodded and prodded Sowmi who squealed quietly in her sleep. “So you've never done anything else or been anywhere else?”

Haknyeon started to feel that the dusty heat of outside had permeated the chill of the barn but he couldn't let that affect him or Piggly would panic. “I went to school and stuff.”

Hyunmin grinned at Haknyeon and the expression wasn't at all unkind so Haknyeon wasn't sure why it made him feel prickly and strange. “Did you like school?”

“It was alright.”

“But you never had a different job or anything?”

“I've not exactly had the time,” Haknyeon muttered as he stroked the fuzziness of Piggly’s head gently. “What about you? Have you always been a disposable life in a silly war?”

“Doesn't it affect you too? Aren't there ways that life would be different for you under the rule of the First Order and The New Republic?”

Haknyeon shrugged and decided Piggly was calm enough that it would be easy to relax him once more. He lifted up Piggly’s right ear and gently slid the tip of the thermometer into the ear canal. Piggly only squirmed a little bit and once Haknyeon noted his temperature he wriggled around in Haknyeon's lap until Haknyeon hugged him to make him happy again. At this Hyunmin finally realised that Haknyeon had no interest in talking about the war.

“I was an intra-planetary pilot back at home before I joined the rebellion but there is something else I always wanted to do.”

“What's that?”

Hyunmin rubbed his nose and smiled sheepishly as his skin pinked. He sounded wistful as he said, “I wanted to be an artist. I might not look it but I was really good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Hyunmin agreed. “I think I still have files from my project on how the political macrocosm model renders the smaller communities within it anonymous. It was about how on planets there are whole countries with varied cultures who are shed of their identity simply for the generalisation afforded them on their planet by the galactic consciousness. I will have to ask KT very nicely for them.”

“Oh,” Haknyeon said. “That sounds very interesting and exciting.”

His utter lack of comprehension must have showed because Hyunmin scooped Piggly out of Haknyeon's arms and replaced him with Boarjin who snorted loudly in his sleep. Hyunmin sat directly in front of Haknyeon on the barn of the floor and said, “It was one of those ongoing projects that I started when I was young. They’re mostly portraits. Can I do one of you?”

“You want to draw a picture of me?” Haknyeon asked.

“You have such a nice face to look at. I bet if I tried really hard I could do you justice. I would have to stay with you all the time though to make sure I get it right.”

Hyunmin seemed to not realise that the current situation was him existing only in Haknyeon's presence. It felt ridiculous to point that out when all the knowledge would do would draw attention to how lonely Haknyeon would become when his temporary companion finally fell back into the sky once more. He told Hyunmin not to bother and asked to hear, for the fifth time already, about how Hyunmin's brother married the daughter of their town's mayor and had been recruited into the quiet struggle of small-scale politics back home on Corellia.

 

***

 

The days were warming up after the most recent litter had been born and that made six litters this season, all consisting of between five and nine piglets. The nights too were rising in temperature, though the weight of this particular heat that woke Haknyeon up in the middle of the night wasn't typical.

“Hyunmin,” Haknyeon murmured, “What are you doing?”

Hyunmin made a sleepy sound and coughed lightly into the back of Haknyeon's neck. “Do you not like it?”

It wasn't that Haknyeon didn't like how Hyunmin had cuddled up to him during the night, it was simply that it wasn't a very good idea for him to do it. Haknyeon was sure he was already far too attached to the visitor and when Hyunmin left Haknyeon would invariably suffer solitary sleeplessness. It was bad enough that Hyunmin had spent all day being adorably useless when it came to shovelling muck out of the pigsties and Haknyeon realised he couldn't even bring himself to be annoyed about it. If Hyunmin insisted on getting closer like this Haknyeon was going to find himself with several more problems.

“There's plenty of room on your side,” Haknyeon said quietly. For a moment Haknyeon thought Hyunmin had fallen asleep and he was going to have to peel Hyunmin off his back to regain some necessary space between them.

And then a whisper that Haknyeon struggled to hear over his own breathing.

“I'm cold.”

Hyunmin didn't feel particularly cold at all. He was a searing heat against Haknyeon's back and he had pushed the covers off to reach out to meld them both together in the sweltering pitch of the night. Haknyeon wasn't sure what he was supposed to think about that. Hyunmin’s voice was small. He was beginning to draw away and even if it was going to make things harder Haknyeon supposed he didn't mind the uncomfortable warmth.

Haknyeon slipped his hand from beneath his pillow and wrapped it around the hand Hyunmin had curled uselessly against Haknyeon's stomach.

“Are… are you cold too?” Hyunmin asked, his voice sharp with an alertness which had been missing until now. Haknyeon screwed his eyes tightly shut and willed himself not to think too deeply on it.

“I'm freezing.”

He waited for sleep to drag him back to ignorance but before that happened Hyunmin held him just a little tighter.

 

***

 

In Haknyeon's opinion the timing was awful. He had taken Hyunmin into the nearest town after arranging for the latest batch of pigs to be taken to the abattoir. Haknyeon should have been used to the process by now but he still felt teary-eyed and was glad he had Hyunmin to hold on to when he bid farewell to the pigs that didn't have a clue what lay ahead of them.

Their eyes were always so bright and innocent and even if it was a business there were always one or two pigs that he grew overly attached to. At least Haknyeon could pretend away his own feelings on the matter with Hyunmin sobbing into his chest.

“We should have a day off,” Haknyeon suggested. It was a terrible idea and his delegation of tasks was met with grumbles and snide remarks muttered under breaths but Haknyeon ignored it all. He wanted to show Hyunmin into town and let him see at least a little bit of the world even if Hyunmin had already seen dozens of planets.

Hyunmin had all the right reactions when the rolling verdant terrain gave way to the steely hues of urban expansion and he had so many questions about everything.

They ate lots of food. There was no shortage of restaurants and stalls that Haknyeon wanted to visit and show Hyunmin. There were places to try dishes from all over the planet and Haknyeon's stomach felt too tight and full of everything they split between them. The strolls in between their stops weren't long enough to ease the feeling of fullness and after a while Haknyeon was barely tasting the food because they were eating so much of it. But he had to show Hyunmin as much as possible.

They even watched a performance together. Haknyeon wasn't sure what the storyline of the open air play was because he felt so drowsy and overly full but Hyunmin clapped at all the right places and nudged Haknyeon in the ribs to wake him up.

They went home and Hyunmin found Sowmi and hugged her to his chest and declared that they needed to spend some quality time together.

Quality time to Hyunmin was getting KT-GZ to play some of the softer styles of music that were popular across the star system he grew up in and trying to get Sowmi to sing along. But then they were interrupted by a knock on the homestead door.

Haknyeon had almost completely forgotten about the existence of the crashed X-wing near the border of the farm. Much of the parts torn away from the vessel were deemed useless and were shoved in the back of a storage shed somewhere and the starfighter itself was a problem for another time because Haknyeon was always with Hyunmin and never had time alone to attempt to repair it as a surprise. Even though his mum and sister would soon be home to ask questions, Haknyeon had simply left it.

Before Haknyeon's mum and sister were two imperial soldiers who were surprisingly polite as they made their enquiries.

Hyunmin struggled to keep his hands steady as he poured them drinks and Haknyeon smiled tightly and hoped he didn't look as though he was hiding anything

The soldiers had removed their helmets and one of them was wearing a dubious expression each time they regarded Sowmi snuffling around Hyunmin’s ankles.

“So these are the things you raise here?” One of the stormtroopers asked.

“Yes, they're pigs,” Haknyeon replied stiffly. He shouldn't have felt so odd about this but Hyunmin must have been the same by the way he scurried over to stand beside Haknyeon with Sowmi nudging them with her trotters.

“They look different to how I expect when they're alive,” the other stormtrooper remarked.

Haknyeon didn't know what that was supposed to mean and smiled blandly in response. Hyunmin pressed closer to his side and one of the stormtroopers cleared their throat.

“As you can probably guess we are here about the ship crashed on your farm.”

“Oh, really?” Haknyeon asked. He lifted Sowmi into his arms and wondered whether any of his movements were suspicious. Hyunmin, maybe too conscious of being suspicious threw caution to the wind.

“It has been a while since the ship crashed. Why are you only looking into it now?”

“There have been some administrative delays,” the stormtrooper who wasn't apprehensively peering at Sowmi explained. “The funding doesn’t stretch far enough to allow us to investigate everything as promptly as we would like but we are here now. After we have taken a look with a team we will help you in disposing of the spacecraft to make up for it.”

“Oh.” Haknyeon glanced at Hyunmin, uncertain of how to respond. He knew that his reaction should be grateful that they would help them out, but even if Haknyeon hadn’t made any efforts recently he still wanted to try to fix the X-wing so that Hyunmin could leave. If the stormtroopers took the crashed vessel away then Hyunmin really would be stuck here forever.

Hyunmin curled his fingers in the back of Haknyeon’s shirt. “That would be appreciated. It is very kind of you to do that much after that spaceship has troubled us for so long.”

“Hyunmin…”

Haknyeon’s concern was rebuffed quickly. “Ah, you’re right, Haknyeon. I’m being rude to our guests. It is just that I have been worried about the pigs for some time. Initially I was glad that the spaceship hadn’t crashed into the house and killed us but I think the pigs sensed that something could have happened to them all. They’re smarter than you think and they get so nervous about it, especially our little Sowmi here.”

The stormtrooper who had taken on the more official line of conversation smiled lightly as Hyunmin reached around Haknyeon to stroke Sowmi’s ear.

“We will try not to disrupt things for too long.”

“That would be greatly appreciated,” Hyunmin said.

Hyunmin continued to smile and chat with the stormtroopers and the rushing in his ears was reminiscent of the night when he thought the whole world was caving in on him. The air was singed with the smelting of cosmic metal and there was something around the farm which had made Haknyeon’s head stuffy for several hours until he noticed the black smoke funnelling towards the sky from the crashed X-wing.

There were so many ways in which things could have been different. Hyunmin could have crashed his starfighter into the house or part of the farm, or the X-wing would have been in a much better state, or Haknyeon wouldn’t have torn at the vessel with tools, or Hyunmin might not have been able to make it, or there could have been a different pilot altogether, but he had to focus on the current situation. He had to focus on Hyunmin lying to stormtroopers and being so airy while explaining that the pilot was dead when they arrived and they cremated the body to prevent the attraction of vermin to the farm. They had to look at the way things were rather than thinking about if things had been slightly different Hyunmin wouldn’t be with him now.

There were more questions about the day of the crash which Hyunmin was certainly fabricating, though Haknyeon didn’t mind that so much as his reply to the question of who the two of them were.

“Our records don’t have either of you listed as proprietors of this farm.”

“My mother is the owner,” Haknyeon said. He passed Sowmi to Hyunmin and fetched his identification papers. “I’m not normally in charge but my mother and my sister are at a series of conferences in the Lothal system.”

“And I’m his husband,” Hyunmin offered unnecessarily.

“What?”

Hyunmin smiled, cradling Sowmi serenely and rocking from side to side. “We’re just engaged for now but I’m practicing for when we make it official.”

Haknyeon was glad he wasn’t the only one completely baffled by Hyunmin. The stormtroopers looked at one another before the stormtrooper who had led the questioning said. “We didn’t need to know that much but congratulations. We will be making more frequent patrols until we dispose of the starfighter and but if you see anything strange such as rebel pilots trying to get into contact or recover the ship then you should report it to us as soon as possible.”

“Of course we will,” Hyunmin said merrily. “Can I expect your attendance at our wedding?”

It wasn’t at all funny but Hyunmin continued to smile at the stormtroopers as they put on their helmets and joked about where to send the invitations. When they finally left Haknyeon frowned at Hyunmin.

“What was that?”

“What?” Hyunmin asked with his eyes glittering innocently. Not even a look like that from Sowmi or Piggly would deter Haknyeon from his questioning so he prodded Hyunmin in the chest and made sure his annoyance showed on his face.

“Why are you telling people that we are going to get married?”

“I think it is a story that makes the most sense. How would you explain the mysterious person who appeared and shares a bed with you? We were communicating from our planets for a while and fell in love so I came here to be with you forever.”

It wasn't the best story but it was far better than Haknyeon's insistence that Hyunmin was nobody's business and they should butt out. Only Haknyeon was still annoyed to hear it.

“Nobody knows that you share my bed!” He said.

Hyunmin shrugged dumbly. “They might know though.”

“How would anyone know that we share a bed?” Haknyeon asked. Hyunmin didn't reply and Haknyeon's head was starting to ache. “Hyunmin, is there a reason that anyone would know about our sleeping arrangements? They're going to think that we do _things_ in bed together! They're going to think that as soon as my mum left I brought you to play in bed with me!”

“One of the workers might have asked me where I live,” Hyunmin said guiltily. His face was red and he twisted his hands together as he directed his speech to the floor between them. “I said that I suffer from nightmares so I have to sleep in the same bed as you.”

It would make sense, Haknyeon supposed, if Hyunmin did have nightmares. Going through a crash like Hyunmin had and almost dying was sure to leave its mark on a person. The thing was Haknyeon had never known Hyunmin to have a nightmare and admitting to such a thing would expose his true identity.

“You can't even make your mind up, Hyunmin. Are you telling people that we are married or that you have nightmares? Neither of those things are true!”

Hyunmin was filled with reproach as he finally looked Haknyeon in the eye and clasped his hands with Haknyeon's where they cradled Sowmi to his chest. “It's true about the nightmares. When I was training and going on missions with the rebels I used to have nightmares all the time. I haven't had any since I met you though. I feel safer with you, Haknyeon.”

Haknyeon didn't want to hear such pretty things when his mind was already struggling. He backed away from Hyunmin and set Sowmi on the floor to scurry in circles around their ankles.

“I should probably go over the books because the payroll deadline is approaching.”

It was a flimsy excuse, especially as Haknyeon's sister was remotely dealing with the accounting while she was at the farming conference but Hyunmin didn't know all the ins and outs of running the farm. He let Haknyeon get away with the excuse to leave and Haknyeon could remind himself that Hyunmin could say whatever he wanted because he wasn't going to be here forever.

 

***

 

It wasn't too much later that Haknyeon woke up one morning and Hyunmin wasn't in his bed. His throat felt dry but he had been preparing himself for a morning like this since the first time he awkwardly settled on the mattress and averted his eyes from Hyunmin’s sleepy gaze.

Even if things were different Haknyeon had a farm to run. His mum and sister would soon be home and he couldn't let things fall apart in spite of them because his feelings were a bit hurt. He had responsibilities that didn't vanish because of something like this.

The pigs still needed to be checked over and fed and the pigsties needed to be cleaned out and there were cordons that needed to be erected to prevent the pigs coming into contact with the stormtroopers. There were so many other tasks and they didn't become less urgent because of the dull ache in Haknyeon's chest which didn't melt away in the shower as things normally did.

The ache in Haknyeon's chest sharpened for a moment when he all but tripped over KT-GZ in his bedroom doorway.

“What are you doing here?” Haknyeon asked. The astromech bleeped but it was unintelligible to Haknyeon. He realised what the robot wanted when it twirled around his feet and sped off along the hallway. The sounds it made became more shrill as it a rolled back towards Haknyeon. He got the message and followed as KT-GZ wanted.

Even with KT-GZ’s intermittent beeping haknyeon could hear raised voices from the kitchen. which wouldn't have been too unusual except he recognised both of the voices too well.

“Would you like me to fetch you anything else?”

“I can find everything well enough myself. I can help you put the pigs back where they are supposed to be if you'd like.”

“How are you going to manage that with a baby strapped to you?”

“A baby!” Haknyeon couldn't believe his ears but the exclamation burst past his lips before he had the chance to control himself. He skidded into the kitchen to see Hyunmin bumping into the fridge in surprise while Haknyeon's sister gave him an unimpressed glance.

Hyunmin hadn’t been making things up. His sister really did have a baby sitting on her lap and she patted its head gently as it babbled and reached out for the uneven slices of fruit sitting in a dish on the table. Haknyeon hadn’t seen his niece very much since she was born because his sister’s family lived so far away but even now he wasn’t certain he was allowed to do more than gape at her in the kitchen. His sister didn’t look very pleased for some reason.

“Good morning, Haknyeon,” Hyunmin said weakly. “We have a guest.”

KT-GZ trundled into the kitchen to be greeted by Sowmi and Piggly who snuffled at it cheerily.

“Hyunmin, this is my sister,” Haknyeon said.

“I thought she was elsewhere in the star system with your mother,” Hyunmin said as he shuffled around the kitchen table to stand beside Haknyeon.

“That is my younger sister. This is my older sister and her daughter… who haven’t been here for a while. I thought you would have called or something to let me know if you were going to drop by.”

“Why?” His sister asks as she sipped from the cup she moved away from her baby’s flailing arms. “Do you need warning about my visit? Is there something you needed to do before I arrived? Such as hide this man away so he can’t accuse me of being an intruder in my family home. Oh, I’m sorry, his family home because I have it on good authority that he is married to the owner of this farm.”

It was worse that Hyunmin was standing so close to Haknyeon because there wasn’t much that Haknyeon had to do to kick him in the shin. Haknyeon didn’t want to hurt Hyunmin but he was standing so close and being so brazen about things that it would have been strange for Haknyeon not to be angry.

“What did I say about telling people that we’re married?” Haknyeon hissed. Hyunmin rubbed his shin pathetically.

“Are you?”

Haknyeon stiffened before he turned to face his sister. Her face was carefully curious as she held her baby’s hand. She was adept at affecting calm but Haknyeon knew her too well to be fooled.

“We’re just thinking about it for now. We have talked about it a lot,” Haknyeon said. Hyunmin coughed and Haknyeon rubbed his back and tried not to look very bothered about any of this even though he was. KT-GZ bleeped loudly but Haknyeon ignored the droid and tried to smile calmly at his sister. He wasn’t lying because he and Hyunmin had spoken about being married, even if the conversations were to specify that they weren’t. Haknyeon needed the grain of truth in that statement to save him from revealing that Hyunmin was a rebel pilot who crashed his ship at the far end of the farm and was living with Haknyeon until they worked something else out.

“Why haven’t you told me about this? I’m still your sister, Haknyeon, I want to know about your life even if I don’t live here anymore.”

Haknyeon wasn’t sure whether the guilt he felt was a result of intent or accident but he couldn’t quite look his sister in the eye. “I know that I should have told you before but it is new. We are still in that phase of always being together so I worry that if I tell people they will say we don’t know each other well.”

Hyunmin smiled softly at Haknyeon and it seemed there wasn’t anyone in this room who Haknyeon could maintain eye contact with. He was lying to everyone but he wished it didn’t feel so much like he was lying to himself. Allowing himself to say even this much was far different to Hyunmin carelessly using the excuse as a cover.  

“How new is it? Did this happen before or after a rebel pilot crashed into the farm.”

Haknyeon had to look up then because he wasn’t sure how guilty he looked. Hyunmin shuffled into Haknyeon’s side and clung to him as though doing so wouldn’t give him away.

“How did you know about that?” Haknyeon asked.

“It’s a space ship,” Haknyeon’s sister said. “It is hardly inconspicuous. Also mum asked me to come and take a look because she was contacted by the authorities but her precious son hasn’t mentioned it any of the times that she called. And I assume you never mentioned your friend either.”

Haknyeon didn’t know what to say. His first instinct was to clarify that Hyunmin wasn’t his friend but if not a friend he didn’t have an answer for what he was. If Hyunmin wasn’t a friend Haknyeon didn’t have an answer for why he was so attached to the man. He couldn’t have mentioned Hyunmin to his mum either. He would have slipped up too easily and said something he shouldn’t have.

“I was here when the X-wing crashed. Well I arrived at the same time anyway,” Hyunmin said.

“Hyunmin-”

“It’s fine,” Hyunmin said. “We should be honest at a time like this. I am in love with Haknyeon. Like, the sort of dumb if I wasn’t already here I would be on my way across the galaxy just to get to him love. And I am the pilot who crashed that starfighter. Please don’t turn me in. I want to stay with Haknyeon more than anything.”

Haknyeon looked at Hyunmin but Hyunmin was staring right at Haknyeon’s sister. There was something different in the set of his shoulders. And Haknyeon really loved him too. Though it was debatable whether he was really loved in the first place. He was good enough that Haknyeon would totally believe it and be compassionate enough to let him live in peace. Even more so when Hyunmin slipped his hand into Haknyeon’s.

“Do you really love him?” Haknyeon’s sister asked.

“I really do,” Hyunmin replied.

“What about your family and your friends? And the rebellion, what about that? Are you just going to give that up for my brother?”

“I have managed to send a few messages home with KT-GZ. And it is honestly a relief to get away from the rebellion. I only did it because that’s what everyone else was doing on Corellia. When things die down in a while I can start to get in contact with them properly and maybe I could take Haknyeon to meet my family too.”

“You want me to meet your family?” Haknyeon asked.

“Of course,” Hyunmin said. “They’ll love you. They’ll be so jealous of how happy I am with you and our babies Sowmi and Piggly.”

“You still name them like that?” Haknyeon’s sister asked. Her baby squealed merrily but rather than because she loved the names of Haknyeon’s babies she had only just noticed the existence of the droid in the kitchen. Haknyeon’s sister pointed at Hyunmin and grinned. “You know this kid comes up with the worst names for the pigs. He doesn’t even care that the sows name their litters he gives them another name for them to learn.”

“The sows?” Hyunmin asked. “The pigs can talk too?”

“Of course not but they communicate-” Haknyeon’s sister stopped her sentence and nodded in understanding. As Haknyeon patted Hyunmin’s shoulder sympathetically. “I get it now. This makes a lot more sense now.”

“What does?” Haknyeon asks.

“You’re connecting on a mental level, aren’t you. A pair of genuises.”

“I don’t know you very well but that sounded really sarcastic,” Hyunmin said. Haknyeon knew his sister very well. She was being sarcastic. But Hyunmin didn’t need to know that much.

“You’re really smart, Hyunmin! You flew around in space for so long! You have to be smart to do that!”

Hyunmin nodded. “Yeah. I must be even smarter than I thought because I crashed into the perfect place to be able to meet you.”

Meeting Hyunmin was such a wonderful part of Haknyeon’s life but he wasn’t so sure about Hyunmin’s smartness bringing them together. Perhaps there was something in the universe which wanted something good for them - perhaps there was some weight to the claims made by people who worshiped the force - and Haknyeon would be a fool to try to fix Hyunmin’s ship and let him go. But Hyunmin was insisting enough that Haknyeon could believe that and only that.

Hyunmin’s smile was too genuine not to believe so Haknyeon returned it as steadily as he could.

“You should tell mum before she gets back,” Haknyeon’s sister said quietly.

“I will,” Haknyeon promised. He set about making a better breakfast than the poorly chopped fruit which Hyunmin had set out and wondered how happy he was allowed to be that his sister planned to stay with them for a few days.

When they were clearing up after breakfast and Haknyeon’s sister was settling back into the bedroom she grew up in, Haknyeon grabbed at Hyunmin’s elbow.

“Are you fine to stay here, really?” He asked. Hyunmin tilted his head.

“Yeah. I am in love with you so I really want to do anything I can to stay with you.”

“Oh,” Haknyeon said. “Really. Like not just as an excuse to hide here?”

“I already ruined the hiding by admitting who I am to your sister,” Hyunmin pointed out. “Unless you don’t like me and we can pretend that I never said that.”

“Even though we sleep in the same bed?” Haknyeon asked as Hyunmin dried the dishes.

“Especially because of that.” Hyunmin’s hands moved very slowly as he piled everything up with quiet clinks. “I don’t think I would have been able to cope so well being cut off from everything if it wasn’t for you. I just wanted to put that out there. I’m not saying you need to-”

“I felt guilty about wrecking your X-wing more,” Haknyeon interrupted as he fiddled with a dish towel. “But even though it was my fault I really hated the idea that you would be mad at me and would want to leave. I looked after you when you were sick and when you woke up I wanted you to like me and think I was really cool for doing that.”

“I do like you,” Hyunmin said.

“Oh, okay. I like you too. I like you enough that I want you to be here always, even though you want to go home.”

Hyunmin’s face was somewhere between a smile and a frown and Haknyeon hoped he hadn’t said anything too upsetting as he rushed to see whether the giggling from his sister’s room was a request for assistance.

 

***

 

Even though Haknyeon was surprised he was still asleep enough that he couldn’t react the way he should have to Hyunmin’s face being so close to his when he woke up. This was normal, really, the pair of them sharing a bed but being nose to nose like this but the last time Haknyeon had drifted to sleep during the night he was facing the back of Hyunmin’s head.

“Good morning,” Hyunmin said.

“Morning,” Haknyeon. His voice rasped out of his dry throat. He had barely been able to sleep and had tossed and turned for hours while Hyunmin told him stories of meeting nerfherders and droid traders and people who worked very closely with Leia Organa-Solo herself. And now it was the morning and his mum and sister would be home today. And he still hadn’t properly told them about Hyunmin.

“Do you love me? Really?” Haknyeon asked.  

“Of course I do,” Hyunmin insisted. He cupped his hand around Haknyeon’s jaw. “I really do love you.”

“The stuff that you said to my sister, is that true?”

“How many more mornings are you going to ask me this?” Hyunmin asked through a small smile. “I will tell you as many times as you need that I meant it but it would be nice for me to be able to make sure too.”

“Go ahead,” Haknyeon murmured.

“Do you love me? Do you really want me to stay here with you?”

“I do,” Haknyeon said quietly, his voice on the back of his breath. “I love you and even if you didn’t want to stay with me I would follow you anywhere in the galaxy.”

Hyunmin’s mouth spread into a smile. “You’re so cute. I love you. Make sure to tell your mum that I love you lots so that she doesn’t hate me.”

Haknyeon dropped a kiss on the tip of Hyunmin’s nose. Hyunmin was certainly cuter than Haknyeon, especially with the way his face turned pinker than even Sowmi or Piggly. “She won’t hate you.”

Haknyeon’s mum wouldn’t hate Hyunmin, at least not when he finally managed to handle the daily tasks around the farm. Hyunmin would be able to do it. An X-wing probably wasn’t too different to a tractor.


End file.
